


when there is no alternative

by noblealice



Category: Fringe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-24
Updated: 2011-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-15 01:29:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblealice/pseuds/noblealice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Post "Entrada" and speculation for "Marionette" and beyond.) “So those are your choices; destroy the universe that kidnapped you or watch the woman you love die.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	when there is no alternative

He’s been groggy for most of the morning, slipping in an out of consciousness as his exhausted body attempts to sleep standing up. He may be trapped in a cage of his own making, but it’s still excruciatingly uncomfortable. He doesn’t even register the meaning behind his birth father’s baritone words until a door opens and someone is dragged in.

“So those are your choices; destroy the universe that kidnapped you and walk away safely or watch the woman you love die.”

For a moment he thought that he was dreaming again, the sight of her is so welcome. Then he sees her face and the reality crashes down on him. In his dreams, Olivia still smiles.

It’s the longest they’ve been in the same room for six months and despite the dire situation, he can’t help but soak in her presence like a man dying of thirst. He can see from where he’s kept that she’s still stubbornly holding it together, refusing to bend to the gun pressed to her temple. Although there is worry etched on her face and fear adding a ghostly pallor to her skin, her cheeks are dry and he feels a mixture of pride and shame. He feels honoured to have been part of her life, and horrible for making her part of his.

There was a time when she used to trust him enough to take on some of her burden, a time when he believed they had no secrets between them. (Of course, when it comes to them, it’s always more than just the timing that is off.)

But it’s been a long while now since she’d trusted him as a confidant and he is ignorant to the cause of the new lines around her eyes. His lack of knowledge pains him, not because he craves to know the answers to all his questions, but because ever since he had met her, Olivia had inspired a deep need inside of him to take all her troubles away, to remove that haunted look from her eyes.

Seeing her forced to her knees brings forth a surge of energy he had thought lost. He struggled uselessly against his restraints, wishing that in all the solitary hours he had spent pouring over the blueprints in Harvard’s basement lab, that he’d added a way to escape the doomsday device. (Or at the very least that he had installed more comfortable cuffs that wouldn’t cut off the circulation to his hands.)

He had been able to add makeshift adjustments and small modifications, but when working with ancient technology, he was out of his depth and everything looked sloppy and clunky compared to the sleek perfection of the machine.

In the last few weeks he’d been able to install only one small but crucial change; the final component, the trigger subject, must be willing to use the device. (At least he hoped that the modification had been accepted. Honestly, he’d never wanted to test it out.)

His father made a small motion with his hands and the safety of the gun his hired guard had trained on Olivia was released. “Don’t think that you can delay this. The end of the war is inevitable, it has been foretold. You have ten minutes to act before I kill her regardless.”

“Peter, you can’t! Think of all the people.” He honestly didn’t know which universe she was advocating for. Knowing Olivia, it was probably both.

“Destroy the aggressors now, the ones who started all this and I promise you that we will let you leave here together. We will not stop you.”

He knew he couldn’t stall much longer, waiting for a rescue that wasn’t coming. “What if I decide to blast this side to smithereens instead?”

His father laughed, “In destroying this universe, you will be killing yourself and your precious partner along with it and I know you won’t let her die. Not if you can help it. But time is running out. Soon I will make the decision for you.”

“I’m not worth it, Peter. Don’t activate it. You’re safe as long as you’re connected. The universes are depending on you.” He loved her then, fiercely and without reservation, but in this instance she was wrong. If anyone was undeserving, it was him and he had already been selfish enough in his life.

“Do this for me, please. Be safe, that’s all I ask.” He hated hearing her beg, hated disappointing her, but the pure desperation in her voice was what finally spurred him into action.

He gripped the hand clamps and sucked in a deep breath. Underneath his palms he could feel the metal awakening to his resolve. He couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes, drinking in his last precious seconds staring at her face.

“Peter, no!” He was hit by a wave of guilt so powerful that had his legs not been locked in place, he would have stumbled. It had been easier working through the hurt he had put in her eyes when he could submerge himself in a project, isolating himself to allow her the space she had quietly requested. Now he had no walls built up between them and the fury on her face cut into him.

Despite his turmoil, it was too late now; he had made his choice, the only one that he could have ever made. His father had been right; this path had been inevitable, ever since he had seen the drawing of himself surrounded by that ancient text. Without even knowing it, this had been his plan all along since he’d begun tinkering with the machine’s inner workings.

“I’m sorry, Olivia.” He whispered.

Her accompanying scream was blotted out by the heavy whirring of the device as it worked up to full power. Gears grind against ancient cogs until the speed of the spinning metal soon blurred out her face, robbing him of his last comfort.

His sacrifice would be to finally correct a mistake made twenty-five years ago when he should have died. If all went according to plan, he would destroy only himself, along with the machine, preserving all universes from any future attack.

He felt an incredible heat build behind his eyelids and he only hoped that the force field around the device would contain the blast, allowing Olivia to survive. Soon the pain becomes too much and he doesn’t know if the flames engulfed him from the outside or if the fever he’d felt bubbling up from inside him had finally found a release, exploding outward.

Surrounded as he is by the blazing inferno, he misses the tears that are shed for him.


End file.
